Cost of Milk Production — Variation in Indi- 

 vidual Cows. 



So much has been said of late in Fanners' Institutes, in the Agricul- 

 tural Press and in the Bulletins and Reports of Agricultural Experiment 

 Stations, in regard to the yield of milk and butter that may be obtained 

 from cows, and in regard to the improvement of herds, that it has 

 seemed well to undertake a record which should if possible show not 

 only what a fairly good herd can be made to produce, but what such 

 production costs in dollars and cents and in the amount of dry matter 

 consumed. In regard to these last two items there is comparatively 

 little data at present accessible . Most of the large records that have 

 been reported by our enterprising breeders of thoroughbred stock have 

 not been accompanied with any statement of the amount or cost of the 

 material consumed to produce these records. Some of our Experiment 

 Stations have made reports of experiments covering these points, but 

 in general they have been made with a few animals and covering a 

 comparatively short period of time. In view of the general interest 

 in these matters it has seemed to us worth while to keep a record as 

 exact as might be not only of the milk and butter production, but of 

 the amount and cost of the food consumed as well. Consequently, 

 beginning January 15, 1892, and ending January 14, 1893, a record of 

 the amound fed and the amount produced by each individual cow in 

 the University herd has been kept . The food was weighed separately 

 for each cow at each feeding and charged to the animal consuming it. 

 The milk was weighed at each milking and credited to the animal pro- 

 ducing it. Once each week a sample of an equal amount of night's 

 and morning's milk was taken from each cow. The fat in these sam- 

 ples of mixed milk was determined by Dr. Babcock's centrifugal 

 method, and this percentage multiplied by the number of pounds of 

 milk given during the week was taken to represent the number of 

 pounds of fat produced during that week. The University herd during 

 the time of the experiment contained twenty cows. It has been 

 developed from the ordinary stock of the neighborhood by the use of 

 thoroughbred bulls and a rigid selection of the best heifer calves. 



